One Good Turn
by mdelpin
Summary: Two years ago Gray helped Lexi get rid of her very aggressive stalker. She spent the years since changing her appearance and putting distance between her and her attacker. When she finally decided to stop running and make her home in Magnolia who should walk into her bar but the very man who saved her. She is determined to help him out with his own stalker problem.
1. Unexpected Encounter

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong to Hiro Mashima

Chapter 1: Unexpected Encounter

Lexi was very satisfied with herself. She had only been in Magnolia a week and she had already found a job. She had happened upon a Help Wanted sign at a bar on her morning walk. She was still learning her way around town but so far she thought Magnolia was really nice with its many cafes, shops and parks. She still had to find a permanent place to live but her new employer had offered her the use of a small apartment above the bar where she would be working and she had told him she would think about it. She liked the idea of having people around at all times. It made her feel safe.

She would start work that evening. Her job would consist of serving drinks, making some simple food and keeping the bar clean. She was a little excited as she was a fairly sociable person and it had been awhile since she had felt safe enough to allow herself to be around other people. She looked down at the oval shaped locket that hung from her necklace and smiled. She opened it and looked at the picture of the green haired man and said "I think I'm really going to like it here, Daniel. I really wish you were here with me. I miss you so much." She started to sigh but stopped herself. Daniel would not want her to be sad.

She spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town waiting for her shift to start. She arrived a little early so she could check out the apartment. Her boss took her upstairs and opened the door to a beautiful, although small, furnished space. If she was willing to work a few extra shifts he would be willing to let her stay in it as part of her pay. She quickly agreed and he gave her the keys.

They both went downstairs and he showed her everything she would need to know to perform her duties. Customers started coming in soon after and she noticed very quickly that most of them were a lot older than her. A few of them came on to her but they were nice about it and didn't seem upset when she didn't respond to their advances.

She had been working there for a week when something unexpected happened.

"Hey can I get a beer?" Lexi heard a man ask behind her.

"Sure, hang on a second." She quickly poured some beer into a tankard and turned around to see a pair of blue eyes she had never expected to see again looking right at her. She tensed as she handed him the beer but his eyes glanced over her without any hint of recognition. Her appearance had changed considerably since then, ironically due to his advice. He went to pay her for the drink but she waved him away.

"Here you go! It's on the house.", she said with a smile.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not interested."

She looked at him in amusement. "Do you assume that every girl that buys you a drink is hitting on you?"

He looked at her in surprise. "Aren't you?"

She laughed at him. "Not really. I just moved to Magnolia two weeks ago and you are the first person anywhere near my age that has walked through that door. I just wanted to make a friend."

"Oh, well that's embarrassing. Hi, my name is Gray."

"I'm Lexi, nice to meet you."

"I'm not surprised about the age thing by the way, it's kind of why I come here."

"You like to go to places where older people hang out?"

"No, I like to go places no one would expect me to go.", he said with a shy smile.

"Why is that?"

"Sometimes it's the only way I can get some peace for a little while."

She wondered if that girl he'd told her about back then was still a problem. That was too bad. He'd seemed like a really nice guy.

"Well, I need to go check on some of the other customers, maybe we can talk again later."

He nodded at her and drank his beer quietly.

Who would have thought that Gray Fullbuster of all people would walk into her bar. She had promised herself that if she ever saw him again she would help him with his Juvia problem. Two years ago he had helped her out of a similar situation after all. Well, she hoped his situation had not deteriorated to the degree hers had. After a half hour of filling orders she made her way back to him.

"Aren't you cold?", she asked him curiously. In the time she had been gone he had managed to lose his shirt. "You know if you don't want girls to hit on you maybe you shouldn't walk around half naked." She grinned at him.

"When did that happen?" He looked around in confusion trying to figure out where his shirt went.

Lexi laughed. "What's that tattoo on your chest?"

"That's the mark of the guild I belong to, Fairy Tail."

"I've heard of it. A lot of the people here have talked about it. So you're a wizard?"

"Yep. Anyway, I have to go, I have a job in the morning. Thanks for the drink! Maybe I'll introduce you to some of my friends sometime", he waved to her and got up to leave.

"I'd like that."


	2. A Friendship Develops

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima

Chapter 2: A Friendship Develops

Gray walked past the bar he had gone to the previous night and thought about the bartender he had met. He didn't know why but he had the distinct feeling that they had met before although he couldn't remember where. He also felt like she had recognized him when she had given him his drink. He was used to fangirls, most of the male mages at Fairy Tail had them but this felt different. Important, somehow. If she knew him, why wouldn't she just say something? He made up his mind to return after he got back from this job to see if he could get to the bottom of it.

His thoughts were interrupted by his teammate Natsu Dragneel, "What's got your panties in a bunch?"

Without thinking he answered, "I'm just thinking about a girl I met last night."

"Don't let Juvia hear you say that.", the fire mage teased him.

Gray glared at his friend. "Ugh, You know damn well that I'm not interested in her like that. If you guys didn't encourage her all the time she might actually leave me alone."

"So you're interested in this one?", Natsu grinned at him triumphantly, having gotten the ice mage to fall into his trap.

"I'm not. I just got a weird feeling from her, like I knew her from someplace."

Natsu shrugged, already bored with the conversation. "Why don't you just ask her then?"

Two days later Gray was ready to do just that. They had just returned to Magnolia from their job and he was ready for a small break from Team Natsu. They had finished the job successfully but had caused enough destruction to lose a large amount of their reward. Lucy had spent most of the trip home yelling at him and Natsu about how it was their fault she would not have enough money for rent. Gray didn't understand how she seemed to be so oblivious to the fact that her spirits caused as much damage as the rest of them. Whatever, he would stop at the bar to have a beer, ask the girl if she knew him from before and go face Makarov's wrath.

Natsu had offered to come with him, mostly to avoid Makarov but Gray didn't want to have other guild members start to invade his safe haven. It might get back to Juvia and this was one of the few places he went that she did not know about. Not to mention Natsu would probably get them kicked out or banned as had happened countless times before. Besides, spending time alone with Natsu was frustrating and he didn't want to deal with it at the moment.

He made his way into the bar quietly, looking around to see if Lexi was working that day. He saw her standing behind the bar in the otherwise empty establishment. He thought it would be the perfect time to talk to her so he approached her. She had not noticed him yet. She was looking down at something in her hands and her eyes looked shiny like she was about to cry.

"Are you ok?", Gray asked her uncomfortably. He had never been very good at dealing with tears and while he was tempted to leave and return another time he stayed. She had told him that she didn't have any friends in town yet and it felt like a dick move to pretend he hadn't seen anything.

She startled and looked up at him quickly locking what looked to be a locket and letting it return to its position dangling above her breasts.

"Oh, hey Gray. How long have you been standing there?" She wiped her eyes quickly and gave him a smile.

"Long enough. Is everything alright?"

"Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. I was just….", she looked at the concern on his face and decided to just tell him the truth, "my boyfriend was killed three years ago. I was looking at his picture and I got sad, that's all." She hastily changed the subject. "How was your mission?"

She turned around and poured a beer in a tankard and handed it over to him. He took it and stared at her for a minute. Her boyfriend was killed? That sounded familiar, where had he heard someone tell him that before? He didn't think now would be a good time to ask. He put his mission bag down and sat on the nearest stool.

"We completed it but we caused more destruction than was necessary so they cut our pay."

"Tough job? I don't really know much about magic. I had a friend that could do it but he moved away."

"Well no, the job itself wasn't too hard. We were after a group of bandits but my team can be a bit intense so most jobs end up being an exercise in damage control."

"What do you mean by intense?", Lexi asked curiously.

The more he talked the more that sad look disappeared from her face so he started telling her about his team mates.

"Well let's see. There's Natsu, he's a fire mage. He's really powerful but he goes overboard constantly and sets everything on fire. You have no idea how much reward money we've lost because of that pyro."

"Lucy, she's a celestial mage, she has keys she can use to call on spirits to help her. She has a lot of them and they're pretty powerful but they can also cause a lot of destruction. Especially Aquarius. She can also be pretty loud, especially when she's yelling at Natsu."

"Then there's Erza, people call her Titania Queen of the Fairies. Her type of magic is called requip. She can change into all kinds of different armors and call forth different weapons. She gets carried away easily though and you don't ever want to make her mad. She can be pretty scary."

"Your friends sound very colorful. What about you? Are you the calm one?"

"Oh gods no, I'm probably just as bad. Especially once Natsu and I get started.", Gray laughed.

"How much damage can you possibly do, though?"

"The first time Natsu met Lucy they managed to destroy the entire port of Hargeon."

Lexi looked at him in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, we rarely ever get the full reward for our missions. We usually have to give some of it back for repairs."

"Have you ever thought of joining a different team?"

"We haven't been a team all that long so we're still working out all the kinks. Natsu, Erza and I all grew up together but this is probably the most time we've spent together in years."

As he got ready to leave, he tried to pay for his drink but Lexi waved him off.

"I can't let you pay for my drinks all the time.", he protested.

"How about this, I'll buy you a beer every time you return from a mission safely, you can get your own drinks after that.", Lexi smiled at him.

"We'll see.", Gray said noncommittally, "I have to go face my Master's wrath, it'll only get worse the more I put it off." He waved at her and left.

He found Natsu waiting outside the guild for him.

"So, what did your girl say?", Natsu grinned at him.

"She's not my girl", he hissed at Natsu, "and I didn't ask her."

"Why not? I thought that's why you went there."

"When I got there she was crying over her dead boyfriend. It didn't seem like the right time. Did you already go inside?"

"No, I was waiting for you."

"Coward, afraid of facing him by yourself?", Gray teased him.

"I'm not afraid of anything, Ice Block!", Natsu huffed.

They walked side by side and entered the guild together.

xxx

'Well that was embarrassing.', Lexi thought to herself. She had thought that she was alone when she had allowed herself to look at the picture of her dead fiance.

Magnolia had been the place where she and Daniel had planned to live after they got married. Daniel's twin brother had moved here years ago to study more advanced magic. Lexi knew she should search him out soon and tell him what had happened but she wasn't ready yet. She still, even after all this time, had a hard time accepting it.

After Daniel's mysterious murder the man had become more agressive in his advances towards her and her father had become concerned and suggested she leave her hometown. With no clear idea of where to go she had moved around a lot. She did not stay in any one place longer than a month or two taking temporary jobs to earn enough jewel to get her to the next town. She did all this to try stay one step ahead of the man that followed her everywhere, giving her no peace. He had threatened or hurt anyone who tried to get close to her in any way. He continued to follow never far behind her. He had finally gotten fed up with her refusals and had tried to take her by force in a dark alley in Acalypha Town two years ago. That attempt had been stopped by Gray Fullbuster. He didn't use magic so she had never known he was a mage, he had just been walking by when he heard her screams and came to her aid. After he had knocked the guy out he had gotten the Rune Knights to arrest him and then stayed with her until he was sure that she was alright.

She had been so shaken that before she knew it she had tearfully told him about what the man had done to her, even her suspicions that he had been the one to kill her love. He had told her a little about his own situation with Juvia to calm her down and let her know he somewhat understood what she was going through. He had suggested that she change her appearance and come up with a few different names she could use when she moved around and that's exactly what she did for two very lonely years. She thought it was an interesting coincidence that she had ended up in the same town as the guy who saved her. She would have to find out more about this Juvia person if she was going to be able to help him. She was glad Gray had come in to her bar, she hadn't had the luxury of having a friend in a very long time. She hoped that he would be the first of many as she started her new life in Magnolia.


End file.
